waaaaaaahh sollly on tumblr drew merman!luhan <3

Alea iacta est – the die is cast

Chen wonders if the stormy sea is some sort of punishment for his venture to the surface.

He leaves the palace before dawn, swimming alone. He battles the rough currents fighting him back as he weaves through the water, navy blue scales shining dully in the dark.

Please, don’t. I can’t bear to lose you.

Luhan doesn’t understand. He can freely go between worlds as he wants, but Chen can’t.

He flicks his tail harder as the undertow almost throws him aside. As soon as he can see the stars, the twinkling pinpricks of light that belong to a world even higher than that of the land, he breaks the surface of the water and takes a deep breath.

They aren’t stars, but flashes of lightning.

The drumbeat of thunder resonates in the distance as the water roils and the waves churn angrily, tossing up seaspray and foam while the winds howl like a love-scorned mermaid.

It’s so alive.

Chen floats in the waves, enraptured. A large shadow looms over him and his ears pick up the sound of distressed voices.

A big sailing ship lurches from side to side on the stormy ocean. A gaping hole in the hull slowly in water and the wood creaks threateningly. He gasps as he sees humans on the deck all running about on their two legs, some heaving gallons of water over the side and others fighting with giant sheets of material that are flapping about uselessly in the raging wind.

“The sails – secure the sails!” one of them yells over a clap of lightning. They all scramble to follow orders.

“Captain Yunho, let me handle things here. You should take care of things deck,” a smaller male shouts, and Chen has to do a double-take as he watches him swiftly scale the mast of the ship.

He’s dark-haired and short, but not delicately-built, wet skin smooth and glistening pale under the moonlight. Although he clamps his thighs around the mast and fiddles expertly with ropes and hooks and pegs Chen gets the strange impression that this man is out of his environment. He has an air of command; perhaps it is the way his brow is set as he works and directs commands, or perhaps the way he holds his head up and proud, like a king. The man yells something down at the members on the deck but his voice is lost in the wind.

Suddenly the crest of a wave crashes into the hull with a deafening noise, shattering the wood and sending pieces of it flying. Chen hastily ducks under the water to avoid a jagged plank hurled his way and resurfaces in time to see the ship pounded by another particularly violent wave. The entire vessel pitches sideways and the man at the mast is thrown off with a startled cry, his body slamming against the walls of the captain’s cabin and rolling limply off the bow as the ship jerks once again.

Chen watches in interest as humans on the deck skitter around in panic and curse at each other at the top of their lungs.

“Prince Suho’s overboard!”

Prince Suho.

“Onew, you fool, get off the railing. We can’t even see properly in this blasted darkness! How do you propose we find him– ”

“Are you saying that we just leave– ”

 “We’re losing the stern, everybody move– ”

“Get below and fetch the captain!”

“We have to get Suho back first or the king will have our heads– ”

“There won’t be a head to have if you don’t shut your trap!”

Chen follows the direction the last man is pointing in and sure enough, he can make out some faint outline that is probably where these humans have come from. He squints and searches the dark water for the man they call Suho but he is nowhere to be seen.

Chen dives under and spots the sinking figure below him, his white tunic stark against the water. He darts down and grabs a hold of his surprisingly light frame.

Suho doesn’t respond when Chen shakes him so he wraps an arm around his waist and swims back up, breaching the surface at a certain distance from the ruined ship. The last of the hull splinters with a sickening crack and the entire mess of sails and wood crumbles into the water. The crew members jump overboard and begin to swim for their lives.

Chen looks down at the prince and back at those flailing in the sea. He thinks of Luhan’s own loyalty to his prince and the devotion of his people, and he looks at these men who would forfeit their prince to save themselves instead, and immediately heads for land.

Only one human will touch the shore tonight.

It’s just on the cusp of dawn when Chen gets Suho safely ashore on the rocky beach.

The surface world is indeed just like how his elder cousins had described it. He can see the castle behind the houses and buildings of the city and –

Suho stirs, and Chen tenses until the prince stops moving.

They’re both still partially submerged in water and sand in the event that Chen has to make a quick escape. He runs his fingers along the milky skin of Suho’s face and admires his simple beauty, continuing his path with his hands until he reaches his waist, from which then splits to become two legs dressed in soaked woollen breeches.

He looks down at his own tail, all blue fins and scales up to his hips where they melt away into his human half, and marvels at the striking difference. He cradles the prince’s cold face in his hands and waits for him to awaken.

He remains with him until the sun fully rises and Suho’s hair shines a dark red like the scales of Chen’s over-friendly cousin Chanyeol. The storm clouds have made way for clear skies and gulls circle overhead in the blue expanse. Were it not for his sensitive hearing and some odd thumping noises he’d never heard before, Chen would have fallen asleep under the warmth of the sun.

“I think I can see something! On the shore!”

“I can’t see anything past these bushes, Lay.”

“Wait until we get down. It might be a survivor.”

Alarm floods Chen’s nerves and he turns tail, wriggling slightly to get into the deeper water and zips away to safety behind a rocky outcrop where he can watch without being noticed.

Two humans, each astride a brown four-legged beast and leading two more behind them, gallop onto the beach.

“Good lord, it’s Suho!” the brown-haired one cries. They slow to a stop beside the prince’s body and the other stockier male presses his hand over his heart in relief before dismounting his steed.

“Out of all people we could have found,” he shakes his head, crouching down. He shakes Suho urgently, patting his cheeks. “Prince Suho? My lord, wake up, it’s Xiumin! Dammit, Lay, he’s not responding…”

“We need to get him out of the water first.”

The two of them move Suho a bit further up on the sand and he finally comes to consciousness when they set him back down.

“L-Lay? Is that– ” Suho coughs and spits out a lungful of water. “Ugh. Where am I? How did I end up all the way– ”

Lay shushes him. “We’ve got you. You can talk once we get you back alive.”

Xiumin hands him a thick towel from one of the saddlebags and Lay starts rubbing Suho dry. “We thought we were never going to see you again after we got news of last night’s storm.”

Suho gingerly touches a bump on his head and winces. “It was bad. Where’s the rest of the crew?” he asks. His teeth chatter non-stop and Xiumin fetches him a water skin and some dried meats to nibble on.

“Suho, you were the only one who washed ashore,” Lay says gently. He dabs at a cut on the prince’s arm with ointment and tuts at a large bruise. “Xiumin and I just checked the other side of the bay.”

“But surely at least Yunho must have made it back? The man’s tougher than old leather– ”

“He didn’t,” Xiumin informs him. “Or we haven’t found him yet, anyway. Lay and I were surprised that you made it back, considering how far out at sea you were. You can’t have swum all this way.”

Suho chews his food in thought. “I didn’t,” he says finally. “I was on the mast because one of the sails ripped in the wind. I was thrown off and…” He pauses, confused. “That’s all I remember.”

“Well, Lady Fortune is certainly fond of you,” Lay grins. “But we’re just glad to have you back. I’m sure this is going to be a story that will never die down.”

Suho laughs weakly. “I’m just glad to have two friends like you. Mother will scold me for hours.”

“As if she didn’t when you were a whippersnapper of a child,” Xiumin chuckles, dusting the sand off his hands. “Right, we’d better head back to the castle, my lord.”

He and Lay each take one of Suho’s arms, hoist him up and help him onto one of the horses.

“You know,” Suho begins, taking the reins, “I really think it was more than a of luck to have ended up here.”

“You think so?” Xiumin steps one foot into his stirrup and swings a leg over his mare’s back. “Maybe you weren’t as far out as you thought? There wasn’t a soul here when we found you.”

“Somebody saved me,” the prince insists, looking searchingly at the ocean. “I know it. Otherwise I’d be dead by now.”

Chen smiles, his tail slapping happily against the waves.

“I think you need a good rest,” Lay laughs, nudging his horse into a trot. “Let’s go.”

hi to all subbies along for the ride :D comments and questions are welcome~